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PUTTING THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE

Mar 09, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The APNU/ AFC coalition is off to an inauspicious and confusing start, one that mimics the well-known practice of the PNC when it was in power of placing the cart before the horse.
The AFC first proposed a coalition. But the original proposal was not for an APNU/AFC coalition. The original proposal was for a broad-based coalition involving trade unions and other sectors of civil society.
This original proposal has not materialized and is not likely to materialize. What has been agreed upon is a proposal for a coalition between APNU and the AFC with the latter taking as much as forty per cent of the positions of the seats that the coalition wins in the elections.
The agreement has so far centered on positions and who got what between the two parties. It decides how the spoils are going to be divided.  Before the division took place, civil society was not brought on board.
Why then does APNU and the AFC feel that having not been a signatory to the Cummingsburg Accord or to the negotiations that led to the Accord, that civil society will be willing to be part of the coalition or the government that it hopes to form?
There was then a public launch of the coalition but no agreed upon joint programe between the AFC and APNU was announced. Perhaps they are still working on it.
Now we learn that civil society is going to be approached to determine the role they will play in the new government.
But why are they now being approached when there is already an agreement between the two parties as to how the spoils are going to be shared. Civil society was not part of this agreement, yet it seems as if they are now going to be asked how they should play a role in any new government. They are in effect being asked to indirectly commit to being part of a government after being excluded from the agreement that led to the Cummingsburg Accord.
There is not as yet a revealed joint programme. So why is APNU/AFC asking civil society to be part of any new government when civil society has not yet seen the blueprint of what government intends to pursue. APNU/AFC is in effect asking civil society to make a leap of faith and commit to the aims of the coalition without knowing what it stands for.
I do not believe that there will be many takers in such an arrangement. You cannot originally indicate, as the AFC did, that it was interested in a broad coalition of forces, including trade unions (who have no place in partisan politics) and civil society (which by definition cannot be part of a partisan movement) and then exclude these very forces from the accord reached, then turn around and say to these forces, “we want to consult with you so that you can tell us what role you think you can play in our government.”
This is a case of putting the cart before the horse. Civil society and trade unions should have been consulted before and should have been a party to the Cummingsburg Accord so that they could have an input into its structure and more importantly its programme.
How can anyone determine what role they can play in a possible APNU/AFC new government when they have not yet seen or studied the joint programme agreed upon by the AFC and APNU?
Imagine you go to a member of civil society and you say to him or her, “We would like you to come on board our government when it is formed.”
The person asks, “What is it that you will do when you get into power?”
You reply, “We are now deciding on that but we wanted to know what you think.” This is a very confusing situation and a very inauspicious start to the coalition.
There is only one issue that this coalition is running on and it is on removing the PPP. You are not going to get civil society on board with this alone. They want to see what you stand for before they will decide if there is a role for them and before they will commit to the coalition either before or after the elections.
The cart must not be placed before the horse. Unfortunately this is exactly what APNU/AFC is doing. It spells confusion.

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